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Speaker 1: Hi, guys, Nancy Grace here, welcome back to Killers amongst Us,

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Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Media and Crime Online. Every day,

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Speaker 1: when we pull up at a red light, or we

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Speaker 1: walk through the doors at Kroger or Aldes or Trader Joe's,

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Speaker 1: look around you, it's very sobering to realize there are

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Speaker 1: killers amongst us. Killers you would never expect actually walk

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Speaker 1: the halls of the state Capitol. That's hard to believe

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Speaker 1: because most of them are lawyers and judges. I Nancy Grace,

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Speaker 1: this is Killers amongst Us, a rags to richest story.

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Speaker 1: Linda Colins Smith She's bull she's beautiful, the long blonde hair,

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Speaker 1: the big blue why. Fights her way out of a

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Speaker 1: horrible first marriage and off that gravel road she grew

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Speaker 1: up on with no running water to become a businessperson,

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Speaker 1: a real estate owner, and a local politician. Joining me

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Speaker 1: an all star panel to break it down and put

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Speaker 1: it back together again. Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter

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Speaker 1: Levi Page, private investigator Derek Ellington at ellington dot Net.

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Speaker 1: Professor forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My

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Speaker 1: Feet on Amazon, and star of a brand new series

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Speaker 1: on the true crime Network, Poisonous Liaisons, Joseph Scott Morgan,

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Speaker 1: renowned psychiatris joining me from Atlanta, Doctor Angela Arnold at

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Speaker 1: Angela Arnold MD dot com, judge, trial lawyer, anchor Court TV,

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Speaker 1: Ashley Willcott at Ashley Wilcott dot com. And special guests

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Speaker 1: joining us Ken Yang, former Press Secretary and Senator Missy Irvin,

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Speaker 1: both longtime friends of Linda Collins. We were talking about

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Speaker 1: how Linda had come out of a horrible first marriage,

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Speaker 1: married Prince Charmie who looked great on paper, and then

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Speaker 1: everything went to pot. Take a listen to Crime Onlines

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Speaker 1: Dave Mack. Judge Philip Smith retired from the bench two

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Speaker 1: days after The Executive Director of the Judicial Discipline and

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Speaker 1: Disability Commission, David Sakar, filed a complaint as a result

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Speaker 1: of information obtained through pleadings in his divorce case and

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Speaker 1: other sources. In an official letter of reprimand an agreement

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Speaker 1: not to serve in the judiciary, Sakar wrote, quote that

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Speaker 1: the investigation panel found and you agreed, that you made

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Speaker 1: improper use of court premises, equipment, and other resources to

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Speaker 1: engage in extra judicial activities that did not concern the

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Speaker 1: law of the legal system or the administration of justice.

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Speaker 1: You admitted under oath during divorce litigation in Randolph County

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Speaker 1: Circuit Court that you improperly used court computer equipment after

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Speaker 1: regular work hours at the office. With that, Smith accepted

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Speaker 1: a sanction and agreed he would be permanently ineligible to

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Speaker 1: serve in the judiciary, even in an emergency temporary situation.

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Speaker 1: Oh my stars, can I tell you something? When you

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Speaker 1: are barred from being a fill in judge a senior

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Speaker 1: judge as they are called, when the workload gets to

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Speaker 1: be too much and cases are backing up. Very often

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Speaker 1: in every jurisdiction, retire judges called senior judges are called

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Speaker 1: in to handle let's just say, the bond calendar or

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Speaker 1: oversee a couple of trials when the calendars are really backlogged.

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Speaker 1: So suddenly something that happens in that divorce proceeding with

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Speaker 1: Linda Collins goes horribly sideways and her ex judge Phillip

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Speaker 1: Smith's basically thrown off the bench. WHOA what happened? Leavi Page.

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Speaker 1: So he was accused, and he actually admitted this under oath,

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Speaker 1: accusing computer equipment after hours for quote extra judicial activities.

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Speaker 1: It was never specified exactly what he did, but he agreed.

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Speaker 1: He agreed that he would no longer serve as a judge,

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Speaker 1: that he would resign in describe. Okay, I'm not getting it.

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Speaker 1: So what did you do? Go check as Wells fargo

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Speaker 1: at five o one pm and he got thrown off

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Speaker 1: the bench. I'm not buying that. For one, it was

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Speaker 1: related to his divorce case. Okay, so he checked Urnwell's

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Speaker 1: fargo has something to do with There is something more

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Speaker 1: to this than you're telling me leave my page, Jerk Allington,

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Speaker 1: you're the expert in online activity. What First of all,

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Speaker 1: who would think to check a judge's computer to find

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Speaker 1: out what they've been doing at five oz one pm. Well,

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Speaker 1: in most cases there are some type of controls in place.

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Speaker 1: And it never fails to amaze me how much trouble

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Speaker 1: public and civil employees get into misusing their computer equipment.

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Speaker 1: And I will tell you that you know, checking your

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Speaker 1: stock scores is typically would get you in trouble. I

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Speaker 1: think the elephant in the room is people probably doing

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Speaker 1: things on public computers with a bit of impunity that

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Speaker 1: they probably shouldn't be doing on any computer, and a

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Speaker 1: lot of times misusing computer equipment is a euphemism for

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Speaker 1: probably going to things that he probably shouldn't have been

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Speaker 1: go into. Okay, I'm trying to read in between the

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Speaker 1: lines here. Does it's I mean, you've got to judge

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Speaker 1: protecting the record, making sure that we never find out what,

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Speaker 1: if anything, he was doing online that got him thrown

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Speaker 1: off the bench. Did it ever become public to Kenon

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Speaker 1: Yang what he was doing on his computer? No, I

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Speaker 1: you know know as much as everyone knows. You know,

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Speaker 1: they were real vague, as as you mentioned an extra

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Speaker 1: judicial activity. Uh, you know, there were I believe in

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Speaker 1: in one of the statements that he had gone on

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Speaker 1: that after hours to change some language and the divorce

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Speaker 1: which I think is the decree or the settlement um,

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Speaker 1: and got caught doing that. But other than that, you know,

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Speaker 1: everything has always just been h hearsay or or just

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Speaker 1: you know, up to your imagination. Okay, well you know

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Speaker 1: what you you you said that so diplomatically. I didn't

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Speaker 1: really know what you said. Wait now, are you telling

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Speaker 1: me that he that he changed allegedly changed some worrying

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Speaker 1: and a in their divorce decree. Yes, Yes, that he

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Speaker 1: had went in and tried to change some language and

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Speaker 1: in the divorce. It's in a story I can't remember where, um,

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Speaker 1: but there were there were some allegations of him, you know,

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Speaker 1: improperly using as it was said, improbably using equipment and

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Speaker 1: resources you know after hours. Wow, okay, that's certainly a

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Speaker 1: bombshell to actually Willcott judge and trial lawyer, a court

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Speaker 1: TV anchor. I don't like I'm saying, you got to

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Speaker 1: be doing more than checking your Vanguard account to get

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Speaker 1: thrown off the bench. Absolutely, And I was so I

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Speaker 1: was biting my tongue trying not to drop in. But

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Speaker 1: let me just tell you this, like it or not.

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Speaker 1: I even know if judges who have been looking up

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Speaker 1: things that they shouldn't that may or may not have

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Speaker 1: to do with that. Good people and as a matter

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Speaker 1: of fact, they have not lost their jobs or their privileges.

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Speaker 1: So to me, wait, are you saying there's a judge

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Speaker 1: that that looked at porn and did not get thrown

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Speaker 1: off the bench. Nobody is saying that this judge was

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Speaker 1: looking at porn. Everybody saying that, I know, it's got

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Speaker 1: to be something to get thrown off the bench. It's

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Speaker 1: got to be worse than that. That's my point. And

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Speaker 1: I would suggest going in a changing documents senior divorce

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Speaker 1: absolutely violates ethical standards, and it's got to be something

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Speaker 1: like that to get him thrown off the bench. Not

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Speaker 1: only thrown off the bench, you can't even come back

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Speaker 1: as a temporary judge. I mean, where I practiced law

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Speaker 1: in court all those years in inter city Atlanta, we

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Speaker 1: all I tried many cases in front of senior judges

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Speaker 1: because the workload was so heavy, you know, the twenty

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Speaker 1: or so superior court judges couldn't could not physically, there

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Speaker 1: was not enough time to handle all the cases. So

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Speaker 1: we'd bring in senior judges with try cases and tiny

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Speaker 1: little rooms with you know, all over that courthouse. You'd

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Speaker 1: put up a petition to try case. Just find a

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Speaker 1: judge somewhere. He can't even come back as a temporary judge. Ashley, Yes,

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Speaker 1: that's my point. That's how egregious it was to be

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Speaker 1: to that extent. It is so many different things. I mean,

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Speaker 1: not only the ethical violation of going in and looking

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Speaker 1: at documents, but making change that's fraud. Those are crimes.

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Speaker 1: So in reality, if that's what he really did, he

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Speaker 1: could also effaced criminal charges. Well, somebody had to find

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Speaker 1: out what was going on in order to report it.

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Speaker 1: So how again, no one, no one is suggesting that

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Speaker 1: her former husband, the judge Philip Smith, was looking at porn.

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Speaker 1: Nobody certainly not me. I think it was something very

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Speaker 1: very different. In fact, I don't think it was porn.

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Speaker 1: I think it was something very very different for him

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Speaker 1: to accept a resignation and promise never ever to put

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Speaker 1: a toe on the bench again. To Joseph Scott Morgan,

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Speaker 1: Professor forensics, death investigator, you know I prosecuted cases murder

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Speaker 1: over five dollars, murder over ten dollars. You know, murder

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Speaker 1: take place for a lot of different reasons, with motive

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Speaker 1: a lot less than this because all this comes out

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Speaker 1: because of the divorce. Joe Scott, Yeah, it does. And

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Speaker 1: you know, you've got even a broader spectrum here, Nancy,

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Speaker 1: because you know, you think about those cases that I

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Speaker 1: worked as an investigator in Fulton County and that you

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Speaker 1: worked as a prosecutor, and our spectrum's kind of narrow sometimes,

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Speaker 1: you know, maybe street level drug crimes. But when you

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Speaker 1: start to talk about an individual that is in an

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Speaker 1: elevated position, okay, where you have an individual that say

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Speaker 1: a politician or a judge, you know, your spectrum automatically

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Speaker 1: broadens as an investigator, and it makes it sometimes even

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Speaker 1: more difficult because you know, you begin to think, well,

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Speaker 1: did somebody have it in for an individual, perhaps to

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Speaker 1: ruin their life or to harm them in some way,

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Speaker 1: or was this just a random street level crime. And

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Speaker 1: so that just kind of duplicates the work. And one

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Speaker 1: more thing you can't for good, Nancy, it's the idea

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Speaker 1: that the media is going to look at these cases

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Speaker 1: all the more hard, harder, and much more scrutiny on

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Speaker 1: these cases, and as you well know, it makes our

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Speaker 1: job so much more difficult. So here you have a judge,

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Speaker 1: a lawyer thrown off the bench, never ever to return

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Speaker 1: because of what was uncovered in the midst of a

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Speaker 1: very acrimonious divorce with Linda Collins Smith that said take

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Speaker 1: a listen now to Sheriff Kevin Bell. On Tuesday, June fourth,

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Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, the dead body of a female was discovered

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Speaker 1: that the residence of former Arkansas State Senator Linda Collins Smith.

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Speaker 1: The condition of the body prevented any immediate positive identification.

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Speaker 1: The Randolph County Sheriff's Office responded to the scene that

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Speaker 1: around five forty five PM and immediately began securing the

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Speaker 1: crime scene. The Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division was

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Speaker 1: dispatched to the scene along with forensic examiners from the

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Speaker 1: Arkansas State Crime Lab in Little Rock. The body has

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Speaker 1: been sent for an autopsy to determine the positive identification

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Speaker 1: and cause of death. Third Judicial District Circuit Judge Harold

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Speaker 1: Irwin has issued a sealed an order sealing the documents

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Speaker 1: and statements ordered or obtained by the police during this investigation. Well,

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Speaker 1: let me ask something right off the top to Kenny Yang,

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Speaker 1: former press secretary. Isn't the judge, Judge Harold Irwin who

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Speaker 1: sealed those documents regarding the female body found at Landa's home?

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Speaker 1: Didn't he sit on the bench in the same courthouse,

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Speaker 1: the same circuit as her ex husband. I believe that

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Speaker 1: was the case, and I believe that's why you saw

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Speaker 1: him recuse himself later down the line. So you got

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Speaker 1: Judge Harold Irwin sealing documents about the discovery of a

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Speaker 1: body at Linda Collins home. Judge Harold Irwin sits on

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Speaker 1: the bench down the hall from Linda Collins Smith's husband.

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Speaker 1: The judge, after a very very acrimonious divorce proceedings straight

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Speaker 1: out to leave ipage Crime online dot Com investigative reporter.

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Speaker 1: Tell me about where her home is. I want to

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Speaker 1: find out about. Is it a wooded area, is it

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Speaker 1: near a mountainous area? Is it down a long driveway?

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Speaker 1: Was their video surveillance? Did you have a burglar system

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Speaker 1: in place? Because you know, going to someone's home. Is

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Speaker 1: it very Let me just say open act to just

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Speaker 1: walk up to someone's home and leave a dead body there.

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Speaker 1: Let's just start at the beginning. Tell me about the home.

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Speaker 1: So she lived into Poponis, Arkansas, small town, mostly rural area,

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Speaker 1: population six thousand. She didn't have a long driveway to

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Speaker 1: her home, but her neighbors knew her very well. They

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Speaker 1: said that she was very friendly. And that is the

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Speaker 1: landscape of her home in Pocohonas, Arkansas. And also we

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Speaker 1: know she's not there very much. Her children are growing up,

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Speaker 1: and she's gone to the capitol a lot. And then

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Speaker 1: a body emerges at her home. Take a listen to

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Speaker 1: our friend Tyler Thompson. Kaark wait wait, stop, stop, but LEVI,

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Speaker 1: where is the body? So the body was found at

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Speaker 1: the end of her driveway and it was covered in

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Speaker 1: a tarp and a blanket. So the body's wrapped in

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Speaker 1: a blanket, covered in a tarp at the end of

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Speaker 1: the driveway. What like somebody is taking out the trash

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Speaker 1: and they just leave the body there. Is that what

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Speaker 1: you're telling me, Levi? Yes, And apparently the body had

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Speaker 1: been decomposing for seven days when the body was found.

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Speaker 1: They could not even identify who this body was. Just

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Speaker 1: got Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jackson State University, or hearing what

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Speaker 1: Levi Page is saying, we don't get the ruling on

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Speaker 1: ID because the body is so decomposed, wrapped in a rug,

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Speaker 1: covered in the tarp at the end of the driveway.

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Speaker 1: That's pretty, uh outrage just just leaving a body at

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Speaker 1: the end of the driveway. Yeah, it is. And the

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Speaker 1: heat of the summer in Arkansas. And one other interesting

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Speaker 1: side note to this, Nancy is that you know, neighbors

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Speaker 1: alleged that they had heard gunshot and I think that

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Speaker 1: it kind of went out that she had been shot,

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Speaker 1: and that you know that that turns out not to

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Speaker 1: be accurate. Keep in mind, her body, as you had stated,

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Speaker 1: is a fact decomposed, is decomposed to the level where

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Speaker 1: you just cannot eyeball her at the scene, which is

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Speaker 1: something that we don't want to do anyway, you know,

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Speaker 1: because you can get you can get into the weeds

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Speaker 1: with this very you want to get them back to

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Speaker 1: examine them. But this is complicated all the more because

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Speaker 1: she has gone down the timeline, our post mortum interval timeline,

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Speaker 1: to the point where trauma is essentially you can't evaluate it.

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Speaker 1: It's unrecognizable. That leaves that leads us to this one

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Speaker 1: to this one piece here that's crucial. Where could her

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Speaker 1: body have been sequestered for this period of time, who

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Speaker 1: would have had access to her body and to a

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Speaker 1: location where she could have been hidden away? And then

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, like you said, like garbage just

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Speaker 1: kind of taken to the end of the drive. And

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Speaker 1: it's very it's very bizarre because she was in fact

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Speaker 1: wrapped in a blanket, but not wrapped in the tart.

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Speaker 1: She was covered with a tart, so it's not like

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Speaker 1: she was completely the coon here. You know, I'm thinking,

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Speaker 1: who the hell does this? You know, why would you

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Speaker 1: do this? Why would you do it in broad daylight? This?

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Speaker 1: And it makes us an investcator, It makes me think, well,

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Speaker 1: did this person get caught. Did they think they were

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Speaker 1: being seen as they were trying to get the body

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Speaker 1: into a car, maybe to transport it somewhere, and they

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Speaker 1: just you know, dropped her body there and then fled

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Speaker 1: to Doctor Angela Arnold Psychiatrists joining me out of Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: Doctor Angie, I've noticed in many, many homicide cases the

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Speaker 1: victim's face is covered. It could be covered with leaves.

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Speaker 1: In one case I worked on, the woman's head had

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Speaker 1: the rest of her body was naked, but her head

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Speaker 1: had a wicker trash basket placed over her head to

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Speaker 1: cover the face. It could be a blanket atart, anything

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Speaker 1: to cover the dead victim's face. Why is that means

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Speaker 1: you believe it or not the killer does that to

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Speaker 1: make this a less personal act. It's it's just it's

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Speaker 1: it's it's a reflex that they actually do, and it's

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Speaker 1: so that they can continue with the killing, because possibly

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Speaker 1: while if they were looking at this person, it would

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Speaker 1: personalize it so much for them that they may not

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Speaker 1: be able to continue with what they're doing. So they

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Speaker 1: cover the face so that they actually no longer think

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Speaker 1: about who this person is that they're doing. This act

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Speaker 1: too interesting to Darry Ellington, private investigator at Ellington dot Net.

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Speaker 1: I've seen so many cases where a murder of victim's

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Speaker 1: face is covered. But something doctor Angela Arnold just said

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Speaker 1: strikes the chord. She said, they cover the face. The

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Speaker 1: perp covers the face to make it less personal, which

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Speaker 1: means a random killer does not take the time to

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Speaker 1: cover up the face because it is impersonal. They don't care.

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Speaker 1: It has to be someone that knows the victim to

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Speaker 1: try to make it impersonal. Get it Green, Nancy. But

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Speaker 1: I would also say one of the interesting things when

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Speaker 1: we're looking at people's, say electronic footprint, is how people

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Speaker 1: who commit crimes can compartmentalize their activities, and you can

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Speaker 1: sometimes think you're dealing with two separate people, the person

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Speaker 1: who commits the crime and then the husband, the wife,

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Speaker 1: the children, whoever, because they create almost a separate part

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Speaker 1: of themselves to do what they're doing. So I could

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Speaker 1: see conflict in the covering of the face because it's

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Speaker 1: the two sides of the person battling for control of

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Speaker 1: the situation. Wow. Back to Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor forensic

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Speaker 1: Jacksonville State University. So at this point they couldn't just

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Speaker 1: look in the rug and determine who the person is. Why, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: because she's so far downrange this postmortem interval timeline that occurs, Nancy.

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Speaker 1: You know, we have the effects of decomposition that are

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Speaker 1: going on here. And if she has been essentially cocooned

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Speaker 1: in a blanket, say in a warm area we're talking

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Speaker 1: about Arkansas in the summertime, that's only going to speed

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Speaker 1: up the process of decomposition. Just think about that from

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Speaker 1: the perspective of any biology experiment that you do, or

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Speaker 1: chemistry experiments that you do in high school. Even heat

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Speaker 1: speeds things up. And so yeah, her features are going

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Speaker 1: to be distorted. And the other piece of this, Nancy,

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Speaker 1: is the fact that you cannot properly evaluate injuries at

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Speaker 1: the scene. And again, you know, I, you know, bring

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Speaker 1: this point to you. Initially they thought she had been shot,

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Speaker 1: and of course that turns out not to be the case.

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Speaker 1: Many and I always take a very hard look at

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Speaker 1: whoever discovers the body. Take a listen to our friends

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Speaker 1: at crime online dot com. Linda Collins, Smith's son and

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Speaker 1: her father become worried when several days passed with no

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Speaker 1: contact with Collins. The pair go to her Pocahona's home

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Speaker 1: and make a grizzly discovery. Listen to this nine and

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Speaker 1: one call obtained by Kai t eight. Okay, I mean

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Speaker 1: you have you made contact with her? Is she in

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Speaker 1: the house? No? If you'd out thought, I mean, she's

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Speaker 1: wrapped in a blanket underneath the harp out thud, She's

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Speaker 1: wrapped in a blanket under a tarp outside. Okay, have

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Speaker 1: you tried to check for a pulse? Butch finds a

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Speaker 1: body under a tarp in the driveway of his mother's home.

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Speaker 1: I will never not be able to see that picture

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Speaker 1: burning in my brain. Initially, police say the body is

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Speaker 1: too decomposed for identification. Wow, So her son finds the body,

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Speaker 1: but he goes there. Let me understand. You tell me leavipage,

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Speaker 1: climb online dot com. How was Linda Collins Smith body found? Okay?

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Speaker 1: So Nancy May twenty eight, Linda Collins Smith quit posting

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Speaker 1: on social media and her family had tried to get

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Speaker 1: in touch with her and they could not. So her

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Speaker 1: son and her father actually drove to her home and

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Speaker 1: that is when they found the body covered in a

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Speaker 1: tarp and wrapped in the blanket, and they called nine

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Speaker 1: two Senator Missy Irvin joining us from Arkansas. Do you

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Speaker 1: remember the moment you learned Linda was dead? Yes, I do. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, it was it was It was haunting and

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Speaker 1: it was disturbing because I think all of us, as

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Speaker 1: female legislators have been in scary situations. I've been stalked,

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Speaker 1: I've received horrible phone calls to my home, threatening me,

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Speaker 1: threatening to take my life, threatening to take my children's life.

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Speaker 1: And so it just came crashing down, I think on

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Speaker 1: me and the other female legislators I served with. You

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Speaker 1: know that this is reality. It happens to one of us,

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Speaker 1: and you know, and it happened to Linda, and you know,

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Speaker 1: it's almost like she was punished for standing up for

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Speaker 1: what she believed in and she was, you know, and

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Speaker 1: somebody took her voice and that was and did something

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Speaker 1: just so heinous and just so horrible to her, and

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Speaker 1: it was just shocking. It was heartbreaking. It was It

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Speaker 1: just rocked. It rocked me, and I think it rocked

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Speaker 1: all of the people that served with her, particularly the

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Speaker 1: women that served with her. It just rocked us and

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Speaker 1: showed how vulnerable we are and what people are capable

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Speaker 1: of doing. And it was just it was just unbelievable

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Speaker 1: and heartbreaking. Guys, the body of Linda Colin Smith is identify.

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Speaker 1: Take a listen to this. Deputies joined by Arkansas State

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Speaker 1: Police's Criminal Investigation Team, a sea of investigators spotted coming

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Speaker 1: through the former state senator's property. Neighbors living around the

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Speaker 1: crime scene chose not to go on camera because they

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Speaker 1: said they're scared to speak out, but they said, this

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Speaker 1: whole ordeal is like a mystery. Colin Smith's home, located

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Speaker 1: right off Highway nine in the Edgewood neighborhood, one that

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Speaker 1: people here told us off camera, is typically quiet. You

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Speaker 1: can see the vehicles behind the crime scene tape. Neighbors

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Speaker 1: told us the red truck belongs to the former senator.

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Speaker 1: That's the vehicle she was spotted driving in about two

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Speaker 1: weeks ago, and the others we are told belonged to

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Speaker 1: her father and son. As investigators arrived, neighbors said those

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Speaker 1: vehicles were left on the property. The body found outside

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Speaker 1: the home has since been taken to the state crime Lab.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for being with us, Nancy Grace Killers amongst us